Modern business practices often require that several persons meet on the telephone to engage in a conference call. The conference call has introduced certain applications and techniques that are superior to those found in a meeting with persons physically present in the same location. For example, a conference call participant who is not actively participating at the moment may wish to mute the audio output and simply listen to the conference call. This flexibility allows the particular participant to selectively participate in the conference call while attending to another matter, such as conversing with another party.
However, significant obstacles still remain in aurally monitoring a conference call while performing a secondary task, especially those tasks involving listening or speaking. For example, the participant muting the audio output and listening to the conference call may experience difficulty in conversing with a second party or listening to the conference call.